Decapitation and the Vulnerable Nature of Joints among the Aztecs

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Prisoners of war were ritually killed by heart extraction and were often decapitated. Archaeologists at Templo Mayor found skulls with the first cervical vertebrae attached, indicating death by decapitation. Lethal weapons such as flint sacrificial knives were also found near decapitated individuals. Skulls were also placed in front of the Coyolxauhqui monolith discovered in 1978. Severed limbs and heads point to the vulnerability of joints, a concept also confirmed in several myths and graphically represented in the Coyolxauhqui sculptures, and in a variety of other deities and material objects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32266